Modernism had a famous motto stating that a house is a machine for living in.

If the architect still adheres to that principle, as the machine and the societies that were built upon it go through dramatic changes, the question he should ask himself would relate to the understanding of about the definition of modern architecture today. What message should the architecture convey if it distances itself away from the industrial age?

Like other fast developing suburbs in North America, Mississauga, located in the vicinities of Toronto, is seeking a new identity that best explains its own characters.

On a commercial street lined with high-end retail stores and office buildings, BGP arquitectura was commissioned to convert a five-story 1950’s apartment building into a mixed-use project composed of thirty-six rooms with boutiques and a hotel.

In order to convert the existing structure to suit the current requirements of the hotel, a series of very precise and careful interventions were required. The old structure gains an entirely new identity with a new wrapper consisting of a frosted glass box of rectangular glass panels floating several feet from the original facade. Sandwiched between the new and old facades are the original balconies and newly implemented corridors.

A new landmark tower will be marking in the next few years the Parisian skyline. Designed by Jean Nouvel, the Tour Signal is a building that consists of 71-storey and will located in the grerater region of Paris, inside the prestigious business district of la Défense.

The Architect has chosen to locate its project at the Porte Ouest to open up the La Défense neighbourhood to Puteaux.

Atelier Jean Nouvel won the competition for this project after being selected from a shortlist of five architects originally chosen out of 18 competitors.

All the illustrations are courtesy and copyright of Ateliers Jean Nouvel

The Commissioner’s Plan of 1811 established the grid as the principal ordering mechanism for the speculative territory of Manhattan.

The regularity and homogeneity of its 2,028 proposed blocks functioned as a limiting device that has largely prevented the imposition of larger more dominant systems that would evade its constraints – ensuring an ease of vehicular and pedestrian flow that aerates the dense porosity of the city. Where this system breaks down or is interrupted, pathologies can develop in the local urban tissue and the social vibrancy that typifies street life in New York is subject to retardation and stagnancy.